You’ll have more energy when you wake up. Your overall appearance improves, with clearer, softer skin and whiter teeth. Digestive issues such as acid reflux often improve. Many people find that chronic aches and pains that they’d just accepted as normal magically disappear.
Personally, I’d been diagnosed with Raynaud’s Syndrome a couple years before I quit. Symptoms included swollen, cold hands and painful sores on fingers and toes, especially in winter. These symptoms cleared up entirely after quitting.
“If you work in construction, you’re often already outside. Even if you are on site, where smoking is not allowed, moving off site is easier [than if you work in an office],” she told the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) People newsletter.
The HAYPP survey, however, identified a more worrying reason building workers may be more likely to smoke – high stress levels in the sector. Of the construction workers who responded to the survey, 65 per cent said they smoked because of workplace stress.
Perhaps you’re trying to quit smoking now, or maybe you’re thinking about it. Maybe the only thing stopping you from trying is because it’s how you cope with stress.
As someone who quit successfully last year, your humble buildingWORKER correspondent is going to let you in on a secret. It’s a secret that, for whatever reason, has been kept from most smokers. What no one tells you is that a few weeks to months after you quit smoking, your stress levels will plummet. Not only that, you will also feel better in almost every way possible.
Most public health attempts to get people to quit smoking focus on what happens if you DON’T quit smoking – that you may get cancer, or you might have a heart attack in some vague, distant future. They never talk about the incredible benefits that you’ll feel right now, shortly after you quit.
So buildingWORKER is here to set the record straight, and to reveal the benefits of quitting smoking now.
Your mental health will improve You might think that smoking helps you relax when you’re stressed, but the fact is, it makes stress worse. On average, smokers have 15 to 20 per cent less capacity to produce dopamine – the feel-good chemical in your brain – than non-smokers.
Then why do you feel relaxed after a cigarette? The feeling of relaxation is real – but the reason behind it is an illusion. After your last cigarette, your nicotine levels begin to decline and you go into a state of withdrawal. Whether or not you’re conscious of it, you start to feel anxious as your body craves nicotine – lighting up another cigarette only relieves the stress created by the last cigarette in the first place.
A few weeks after quitting, most ex-smokers experience significant mental health improvements as their brains begin to produce more dopamine naturally.
You’ll have a lot more money It might be an obvious benefit but it’s important. Smokers spend on average between £200 and £400 a month on cigarettes. If you’re on the average building worker’s wage of around £30,000 a year, and you quit smoking, you will soon notice some more than spare change mounting up at the end of the month.
You’ll feel a lot better physically Smoking doesn’t only damage our lungs – with hundreds of chemicals in a single cigarette, it impacts every organ in your body. When people quit smoking, the body immediately begins to repair itself. You’ll sleep better.
31 unite buildingWORKER Spring 2025
Why is quitting so hard? In the first few days and weeks after quitting, nicotine withdrawal can feel unpleasant. Many people experience mood swings, sleep problems, intense cravings, increased appetite, and digestive issues. This is completely normal. For most, symptoms subside significantly after only 3-5 days nicotine-free, with the majority of withdrawal symptoms totally resolved within four weeks.
Most quitters aren’t aware that some of the worst symptoms are caused by spikes and crashes in blood sugar.
That’s because nicotine artificially regulates your blood sugar. When you quit, it can take a few weeks for your body to regulate blood sugar levels naturally, so you may experience mood swings, fatigue and brain fog. You can alleviate these symptoms by eating healthy meals and snacks throughout the day.
QUITTING RESOURCES
There’s no one ‘right way’ to quit. ‘Cold turkey’ works for some, while others can benefit from the help of nicotine replacement therapy or medication. Ask your GP to find out more.
Some quitting resources include:
Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking, by Allen Carr, £10.99 RRP – classic book for quitting cold turkey
Smart Turkey – Free ebook, especially helpful for making it through the first few days and weeks of withdrawal, download at
https://whyquit.com/smart
Images: Alamy
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